SAP customers will pay more for software support after the
company announced it would be moving all customers onto its more
expensive Enterprise Support package.
Customers "will be transitioned" to SAP's recently released
Enterprise Support package as of 1 January 2009.
Launched earlier this year to new customers, SAP says 350
customers are already signed on. "As part of this transition,
current customers will begin experiencing some of the added
benefits of
SAP Enterprise Support, beginning in July at no additional
cost, with graduated pricing beginning in January," SAP said.
Replacing previous support offerings, including SAP Standard
Support and SAP Premium Support, SAP Enterprise Support provides
SAP support through a 24/7 service-level agreement, continuous
quality checks, support advisory and advanced support for
implementing SAP enterprise resource planning and other software,
SAP said.
Beginning in January 2009, there will be a graduated pricing
programme that incrementally moves customers from their current
pricing agreement for SAP Standard Support or SAP Premium Support,
to the SAP Enterprise Support pricing model of 22% of licence fees
by 2012.
A customer currently paying 17% of licence fees through SAP
Standard Support in 2008 will pay a rate of 18.3% for SAP
Enterprise Support in 2009. The fees will then steadily go up
before reaching 22% in 2012.